Laurel Park canceled the Friday card due to hazardous weather conditions, but live racing resumes Saturday, featuring the $70,000 Miracle Wood Stakes for 3 years olds going 7 furlongs, which is considered one of the four Kentucky Derby prep races scheduled this weekend. The other three are John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park, The Sham Stakes at Santa Anita and the Borderland Derby at Sunland Park.

The Miracle Wood Stakes likely Post Time favorite, #1 – Turf Melody was scratched, which trims the field to 11. Now it appears that either #3 – Deputy Delaney (M/L 4-1) or #10 – Don’t BlameThe Cat (M/L 7/2) will go off as the favorite. There is plenty of speed here which sets up for the winner to come from off the pace, so the one that could surprise is #11- Proud Of Midway (30-1). He didn’t pickup his feet in his 3 year old debut at Turfway Park, finishing 11th by 30, but I’ll forgive him by claiming the synthetic surface wasn’t for him.

Of the three other Derby prep races, I concentrated on the $150,000 Gr.3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita. A field of ten (10) will travel 1 1/8 mile over the synthetic surface in Southern California, Post Time is 7:07pm EST. It’s a great betting race because there is no prohibitive favorite. Any one of #1 – The Program (M/L 7/2), #5 – Setsuko (3-1) or #10 – Nextdoorneighbor (5/2) could be the betting publics choice. Only three runners in this group have won a race other maidens… #1 – The Program, #2 – Kettle River (6-1) and #3- Straighttomidnight (20-1) while all are local runners with experience on both the Santa Anita synthetic or turf courses.